hello everyone! I'm new around here!
I'm no stranger to forums though, and I've done quite a bit of surfing in my search for answers to my questions here on this forum, on Google, Youtube, and many other forums.
First some information. We are building a two story pole and cob style house. The framing is up, as far as the skeleton goes. Its a square structure with telephone poles set for all four corners, with vertical cedar trees between. A good extra thick cedar stands in the middle and the framework for the second floor is up as well (with a few sheets of plywood nailed down to walk up there) the second story floor is cedar and ash trees laid out every two feet i think. We've built a model of the bottom floor to get a good idea of cob mixture and durability, and we're currently building a
rocket stove technology oven to get some
experience with the mixture and shaping.
Now for the questions. We've found sources for free or cheap pallets, and were wondering a few things before proceeding to build the walls out of pallets and just cob each side of the pallets with
straw being the insulation.
1) I've read here on permies that cob is much stronger by its self than with
wood inside it, is this true?
2) If that is true, then would it be better to build the two story house with just cob rather than pallets?
3) If it is better to build the walls out of solid cob, how thick
should the walls be in order to support the weight of the second story?
4) Any advice for this
project would be greatly appreciated.
5) (i forgot) If it is ok to go with pallets, is there a better, no cost way to insulate than to simply stuff the pallets with Straw?
I will update this post with pictures as soon as the rain stops. for now i can only say that it is AWESOME!
EDIT: Not to nitpick, but for anyone that replies, could you provide a source for your information, or some further reading? I'm sure anyone can understand that we dont want to build a house that could colapse on us simply because a random stranger says its ok. Thanks for your help!